Together Forever
by AnonymousDH
Summary: A short one-shot about the morning that followed episode 904, and what Donna and Harvey promised each other the night before.


hello everyone,

So I did something I said I wouldn't do, even told catsballeths and donnapaulsen in person that I absolutely couldn't justify writing a fic based on what's currently happening on the show while my other fics take forever to update (I will),

but then 904 happened AND THEY ARE LIKE ESSENTIALLY ENGAGED. IM SO SHOCKED, this season so far has been an absolute blessing, the writing is so in character for both of them and I'm enjoying every second of it. But yeah this idea wouldn't leave me alone and when that happens I have to write it down, now this isn't the original ending I had it mind because this felt like a good ending point too, but maybe one day I'll write an epilogue, who knows.

For now, I hope you'll enjoy this and would love to read your thoughts.

x - M

* * *

TOGETHER FOREVER

The early morning sun enters through the gap between her barely closed shades, the sunray warming his bare back and he stirs a little before giving in and prying one eye open. Tiredly he blinks, once, twice, until his full vision regains and the somewhat blurry orange mess in front of him turns into his favourite view.

A soft sigh escapes his lips before they curl up in a smile, one morning aside he's woken up next to her every single day for the last couple of weeks and yet each time he rises his heart skips a beat at the fact that she is there right next to him. It doesn't happen every morning, but respectively, he treasures the ones where he gets to wake before her, and this morning is no different.

He watches the redhead sleep peacefully beside him, her unruly manes always the first thing that catches his attention. She'd tell him she looks like a mess, to him she's as beautiful as ever and it just reminds him of the nights before. When the locks tickled his skin as she leaned down to kiss him or how he threaded his fingers through them, always bringing one strand behind her ear when she collapses on top of him and pushes herself up to kiss him once more after she had caught her breath.

His gaze travels down her face, her mascara smudged, and he knows she'll complain about not having taken it off the night before, but it reminds him off the tears shed between them. They were only happy ones and the first ones rolling after his mother made her burst out laughing. He brings his left thumb to her face and runs it over her cheekbone down to her ear in a gentle caress.

The soft gesture continues along her neck, over her bare shoulder and down her arm. Mindlessly drawing patterns between the constellation of freckles Harvey kissed the night before. His hand hooks around her elbow for a second as her arm moves under his touch, her lower arm now clinging onto the white sheets that cover her chest.

Her frame is always pale, but the sheets are still a stark contrast to her skin and it reminds him of the first time he got to admire that view. The piece of fabric covering more than the whipped cream had done at the time, the rise and fall of her chest not as much movement as when she rode him the night before, but the sight makes his morning wood twitch all the same.

A throaty moan rolls off his tongue, he swallows then, tongue darting out to lick his bottom lip and he's sure he can still taste her yet in need of a reminder too. He won't wake her, though.

Instead, he trails his fingers down the rest of her arm. One for one lifting a digit until his thumb is the only one left, finishing his caress down the back of her hand and over her ring finger. His eyes locked on the same body part and he can't help but smile at what they essentially found themselves promising one another the night before.

_Together forever._

He doesn't know how long he'd been staring at her hand; it could have been minutes but a few seconds all the same. Thoughts of the carefully hidden away piece of jewellery drifting from his mind the second he registers the briefest of fluttering of her eyes.

His gaze lifts to meet hers, but instead of the usually still sleepy look in her hazel eyes he finds them sparkling, and it's the way her lips are pursed holding back a grin that he knows he got caught. It doesn't rattle him though if anything it makes him bolder, and he eyes her hand one more time before returning his gaze to lock with hers.

Waking up in his arms has been nothing but pure bliss, and she had been assured about their future even before he entered her apartment that one night, but the verbalisation of what she'd unconsciously always dreamt of made the butterflies work on overtime. The way she watched his gaze travel over her frame only adding fuel to the fire, and if she hadn't already been head over heels in love with him, he made her stutter for god sake, the unadulterated look of adoration in his eyes right now would have done it.

She smiles then too, a wordless _good morning_ and he does the same. A comfortable silence falls over them as they keep staring into the other's eyes, a conversation held between the looks. She only speaks when his grin turns more mischievous and the corner of his eyes crinkle when they close.

"What?"

"Nothing," he answers with a shake of his head, still grinning at his thoughts. Nothing is official and yet everything already said and done, it truly feels like they've always been together and will be together forever. "Just admiring my fiancée."

His answer leaves her just as flustered as his words did the night before, she is just the tiniest bit better at hiding it this time around, merely glancing down when she feels the blush that will colour her cheeks starting to spread. She exhales once, pulls her bottom lip between her teeth to stop herself from smiling. The pointed look raised eyebrow included, and the counter that follows is just to put him on the spot just as he did to her. "I haven't said yes yet."

He matches her look, bobbing his head a tad to the side. Marriage was something he for years actively disliked and never envisioned being in his cards; it became a distant possibility under the influence of his friend's relationships. But the morning after he showed up at her place, it had become a certainty.

Because like he told her that night, right before falling asleep in her arms.

Everything's changed.

And where her five-word rebuttal would have sent him down a spiral as close as days ago, it doesn't affect him this morning. Because she may not have answered, he hasn't asked her officially yet either, but he's as assured of her answer being positive as she is of him popping the question in the future.

Both of them fully aware that it doesn't matter anymore. Not him asking the question he once so casually threw in Donna's direction the day Mike started at the firm, nor her answer this time around as it had been positive back then too.

They know where they stand, after years finally on the same page.

They'll be together forever.

Some would call them engaged, he remembers her telling him they had been married for the past seven years and he thinks it fits them better. _Married_. For the past twelve and a half years, and many more to come.

He reaches for her hand again, taking it in his own and he lets his thumb run over the back of her hand. Tracing up and down her ring finger once more, when he feels her tense because of his touch, he grins, knowing exactly why.

She is clueless as to when he's going to ask her.

He takes a mental note to remember yesterday's date, will tell everyone who asks that's the day he got the redhead next to him to agree to become his wife. He thinks about asking her right here, right now, but he considers it best to at least try and get some of her instructions right, the ring being one of them and he can't possibly ask her twice with the object still locked away. That would surprise her the most, and he has rediscovered the last couple of weeks how much he enjoys doing just that.

So he continues their conversation with words that could easily be a proposal in another way but used to tease her all the same. "Yes, you did," he answers, pulling on her hand to bring her body closer to him, waiting for her gaze to meet his once over before he finishes his sentence. "Mrs Paulsen-Specter."

It's barely audible, but Donna gasps all the same when she hears him include her surname with his and she leans on her left arm, pushing herself up until she is in a seated position. Letting the sheet slowly slip down her bare frame, fully exposing herself to him. Something she emotionally already was and this the tiniest ploy of self-preservation because she's still learning to let herself go when it comes to him, to them.

He tentatively watches her change her position, the freckles on the valley between her breasts that get exposed. Biting on his bottom lip as his gaze drops, he knows what she's doing. It has the expected effect between his legs, but he ignores his throbbing member and focuses on the look he caught a glimpse of in her eyes.

The one of surprise, almost confusion and he reminds himself to prove to her how well he knows her every single day for the rest of his life. Starting right now. "I know you well enough to know you'd never give up your name. I just - "

She blinks back a tear and swallows, gives him a tiny nod and her hand finds his elbow. Squeezing his arm ever so slightly, encouraging him to continue his sentence.

"I just," he repeats, taking a deep breath. For someone who's never put much thought into the concept, he can't deny what it does to him now that he has heard his name linked to hers. "I hope you'll take mine too," he says, briefly looking down overwhelmed by his own emotions.

"And I guess – "He finds himself mumbling again, trying to cover up the newfound importance. "It would be easy when we –"

"We have kids?" She fills in for him, using the same significant topic to cover the other they were discussing. It's a lot, but when she looks at him again and sees those big brown eyes staring up at her, the exact way he had looked at her earlier this morning and yesterday when she talked to his mother, it doesn't scare her one bit. It only feels right.

There's no nod, not a vocal agreement either but they both know.

She shifts then, placing her left hand on his chest and she uses the other to lift the sheet and move closer to him once more. Sliding her right leg between his, she lets the fingers of her right-hand trail over his arm to up to his neck as she leans forward and her lips find his in a sweet peck.

Her forehead touches his; her lips ghost his lips as she moves back. Creating just the limit distance needed between them for her to look him in the eye.

"Yes."

It's soft, but it's there, the answer he knew she would give him yet it makes his stomach swell with pride, all the same. The twinkle in his eyes and the grin spreading across his face showing that.

The hand that had been resting on her hip since she draped herself on top of him begins a loose trail over her spine, urging her closer to him again and the other slips over her cheek and into her hair when he closes the distance between them once more.

The kiss longer this time and growing more urgent by the second. It eventually has him flip them over until he's on top and holding the love of his life in his arms beneath him. He pecks her lips once more, then creates the same space she did just minutes ago.

"Say it again."

She smiles, remembers the words from the night they'd gotten together, and she'll gladly tell him again and again, just like he had done upon her request. They will, after all, have the rest of their lives together to do so.

"Yes."


End file.
